Composers Datebook®

Rawsthorne's version of "Cats"

Synopsis

Music Played in Today's Program

Alan Rawsthorne (1905 – 1971) excerpt, fr Practical Cats Robert Donat, speaker; Philharmonia Orchestra; Alan Rawsthorne, cond. EMI Classsics 66935

On This Day

Births

  • 1887 - Nicaraguan composer Luis Delgadillio, in Managua;

  • 1915 - British composer Humphrey Searle, in Oxford;

Deaths

  • 1958 - British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, age 85, in London;

Premieres

  • 1815 - Weber: Clarinet Quintet in Bb, Op. 34, in Munich, featuring clarinetist Heinrich Bärmann;

  • 1846 - Mendelssohn: oratorio "Elijah," at Birmingham Festival in England, with composer conducting;

  • 1954 - Alan Rawsthorne: "Practical Cats" (after T.S. Eliot), for speaker and orchestra, at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland

  • 1956 - Martinu: "Frescoes of Piero della Francesca," for orchestra, at the Salzburg Festival in Austria

  • 1957 - Panufnik: "Rhapsody" for orchestra, in London

  • 2001 - André Previn: "Tango, Song and Dance," at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis.

Others

  • 1717 - French flutist and composer Jacques-Martin Hotteterre is appointed royal flutist (“flutte de la chamber de Roy”) at a salary of 6000 livres

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About Composers Datebook®

Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.

He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.

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